Tuesday, July 28, 2009

"I am saddened that I missed this opportunity to be at the hearing,. You know the circumstances: rain delays at Kennedy that made it impossible for me to be in Colorado Springs in time to attend. It is no fault of the airlines; things just turned out against me in this regard and I only hope that it does not result in turning things against my sister or the families of the victims in this case."

“She had so much to live for. I loved my sister, Karen. I miss her. I miss her in my bones. I was her big brother. I was supposed to protect her — I could not. I have never gotten over it. I was supposed to save her. I could not. It very nearly destroyed me. I knew it destroyed my Grandmother, who spoke very little after Karen’s death and died three years later. My Mother was broken by it. She continues to live her life with a grief that colored her remaining years.”

"Forgiveness allows me to live my life. It allows me to love my children and my wife and the days I have left with them. But I can never escape the horror of what happened to my sister. I can never accept the notion that he can pay for that nightmare with anything less than his life. We all make choices. He made his. Surely a man who has killed so many must never take a single breath as a free man."

Karen's killer, Freddie was denied parole. He is eligible again in 2014.